For the column of active reading, I went back and dove back into the writing of Lisa Delpit, “The Politics of Literate Discourse” in order to cover the allotted work. When I first began annotating papers, I wouldn’t really go in depth and explore what I was actually reading. I would simply and loosely underline phrases that seemed unique and not really understand what they were. When it came to writing things down, I would only occasionally toss something down into the margin of the paper, and hope that would squeeze me past, but when it came to this article, it was the first time I really took my time to go through and understand the content that was in front of me at the time. I started to make sure I only really underlined and highlighted the very important aspects, and paraphrased as well as drawing conclusions not only in the margins but on another sheet of paper, or on another document. This is one of the important hitting points from the exert from Susan Gilroy. I used to never ask questions, but when working with this reading, I began writing small questions down that would help me analyze things in more depth and detail. The concept of making connections between the texts and myself had usually seemed fairly alien to myself, it changed with this, I began making real connections to the world and environment I’m in, as well as myself, “An example and connection I can infer, is I’m quite sure that many people certainly behave at least a minuscule amount different with their friends than that which they do at home with parents or grandparents.” This quote out of my annotations of the article certainly support the idea that I began making those connections and that I made strides with my active reading during this course. Gilroy states that asking questions and trying to figure out the writers motives is a useful and beneficial practice. The addition of inferring the author and the text was also something new that I started to utilize with this reading, “The topic that we’ve been on for discourses has been the concept of “proper” English and “Black” English, and the different people who live within these discourses. I inferred that Delpit argues that the discourse of somebody shouldn’t be used as a metaphorical restraint, and they should still be able to find success in their life.” I certainly feel I’ve come a long way with my active reading, and the evidence from my portfolio should more than service the facts.
